Advances in electronic communications, storage, and processing technology have led to an increasing demand for digital content. Today, large quantities of information can be readily encoded and stored on compact and easily-transportable media, and can be conveniently accessed using high-speed connections to networks such as the Internet, or via wireless communication networks such as W-LAN, W-WAN, and cellular.
However, despite the demand for digital content, and the availability of technology that enables its efficient creation and distribution, the threat of piracy has kept the market for digital goods from reaching its full potential, for while one of the great advantages of digital technology is that it enables information to be perfectly reproduced at little cost, this is also a great threat to the rights and interests of artists, content producers, businesses, and other copyright holders who often expend substantial amounts of time and money to create original works. As a result, content owners are often reluctant to distribute their works in electronic form—or are forced to distribute their works at inflated (or deflated) prices to account for piracy—thus limiting the efficiency and proliferation of the market for digital goods, both in terms of the selection of material that is available and the means by which that material is distributed.
While increasing attention has been paid to the development of digital rights management (DRM) mechanisms to address the problems described above, the large number of competing—and typically incompatible—rights management systems have created interopability and security problems of their own. As a result, content owners are often reluctant to entrust their content to any of the array of content management mechanisms and content-rendering applications that presently exist in the marketplace.